In communication systems where devices, such as mobile phones, communicate directly with each other, so-called Device-to-Device communication systems, it is beneficial if the services running on the devices, that are enabled for such communication, can present themselves to services running on other devices, so that the services may pair up by means of direct communication between the devices for sharing data and content, without burdening a base station operating a cell where the devices are currently in.
In prior art systems this has been solved by allowing the devices to transmit an identification relating to a service that the other, or remote, devices can intercept and thereby identify which services are offered by the device.
The identification is broadcasted over a (dedicated) channel and a device or service running on the device that is trying to discover services running on remote devices simply listens to the channel and as the service sought for is detected the device can, if desired, initiate a connection with the remote device for sharing data and/or content, depending on the service type.
The prior art systems suffer from the drawback that the device is required to listen to all traffic over the channel which draws power and is time consuming.
There is thus a need for an improved manner of enabling a device to discover a service running on a remote device and also to enable a remote device to discover services running on the device.